Libous: Drill on Camp Pharsalia

Senate GOP Deputy Majority Leader Tom Libous has an idea for the shuttered Camp Pharsalia, a closed prison in his district — drill for gas.

Libous, speaking with Fred Dicker on Talk 1300, suggested the empty, unused facility, which has had no buyers and is emblematic of upstate’s shrinking prison economy, could make a good spot for drilling.

Libous, whose district runs through parts of the Southern Tier and Central New York, has emerged as a leading spokesman for the proposed hydrofracking that he and other supporters believe could pull the region out of poverty.

He fired back in the news last week against fracking opponents, including lawmakers whose districts won’t be home to the activity, basically telling them to butt out.

Libous also expressed some measured, almost, kind of, support for a millionaire’s tax — or at least he didn’t say he was unalterably opposed to the idea.

Extending the millionaire’s tax would be an “out of the box” idea, he said, adding that absent natural gas drilling, and given the immense needs of rebuilding parts of the Southern Tier and Central New York after Irene’s flooding, there is a “possibility” of support. The millionaire’s tax continues to be opposed by Gov. Cuomo as well as most Republicans who insist that the state can’t tax it’s way out of a deficit and that to do so would simply drive more wealthy people out of New York.